Beaconsfield railway station
Beaconsfield railway station is the railway station of the town of Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire. The station is served by Chiltern Railways trains from Marylebone towards High Wycombe and Birmingham Snow Hill and is situated between Seer Green & Jordans and High Wycombe stations. Background The station was opened in 1906 as part of the construction of the GWR/GCR joint line. The original station layout was four track, with two through roads and two platform roads, but the through roads removed in early 1974 and trains now use the platform roads. Recently, as part of Chiltern's Project Evergreen 2 the platform roads were upgraded to increase the line speed for through trains from 40mph to 75mph. A taxi cab company is based at the station. The station was transferred from the Western Region of British Rail to the London Midland Region on 24 March 1974. In October 2007 work began on installing ticket barriers: these became operational on 10 March 2008. Prior to this the station was a popular through pedestrian route from one side of Beaconsfield to the other. Since the barriers were installed this walk is no longer possible, and a quarter-mile detour is now necessary. In the early 2000s the station car park was made into a two story multi-storey car park. In March 2008 the top deck was closed for work to start on adding a third storey. This opened on 1 September 2008 bringing the total available spaces up to 696. Services The typical Monday-Friday off peak service from Beaconsfield is: * 4 trains per hour (tph) to London Marylebone, of which: **2 call at Gerrards Cross only **1 calls at Seer Green and Jordans, Gerrards Cross, Denham Golf Club, Denham, West Ruislip, Northolt Park and Wembley Stadium **1 calls at Seer Green and Jordans, Gerrards Cross, Denham, South Ruislip, Northolt Park, Sudbury Hill Harrow and Wembley Stadium *2 tph to High Wycombe *1 tph to Princes Risborough, calling at High Wycombe and Saunderton, which extends to Bicester North every two hours (calling at Haddenham and Thame Parkway) *1 tph to Bicester North, calling at High Wycombe, Princes Risborough and Haddenham and Thame Parkway, which extends to Stratford-upon-Avon every two hours (calling at Kings Sutton, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Hatton, Claverdon and Bearley) Fictional identity Beaconsfield railway station features in a number of episodes of television crime drama series Midsomer Murders, where it is portrayed as 'Causton railway station', in the county town of Midsomer, the fictional county in which the series is set. For these appearances, temporary 'Causton' station nameboards are erected but other fixtures and fittings are unaltered, and in some cases, local Beaconsfield advertisements may be observed in the background of shots. References * Butler, P., Crane, H., Scott-Taggart, E. and Thompson, K., (2006), The Coming of the Railway to Beaconsfield, Beaconsfield & District Historical Society, Publ. No. 9, 40 pp. * Jenkins, K., (1978), The Great Western & Great Central Joint Railway, The Oakwood Press, No. OL46, ISBN 0-85361-238-2 External links * Chiltern Railways Category:Former Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway stations Category:Railway stations in Buckinghamshire Category:Railway stations served by Chiltern Railways Category:Railway stations opened in 1906 nl:Station Beaconsfield